Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 03 - 18 Feb - Ravières - Dijon - Culmont Chalindrey - Paris – Genève

[jon@gruene.social]

@thias oh I don’t doubt you. Just my source was wrong.

[jon@gruene.social]

@deadliftbear Fluo is what it’s called in Grand Est. Obviously!

[stefanlindbohm@mastodon.social]

@jon @12train Is it related to operations maybe? Like which operations centre it runs under..? It’s a crazy pattern so now I’d be curious to now

[stefanlindbohm@mastodon.social]

@partim Yep, it exists. Lokaltog in DK was the first example that popped up.

@jon @12train

[jon@gruene.social]

@stefanlindbohm @12train in Bourgogne it’s weird. They add the 8 only to the very slowest trains (ones that don’t serve Paris)

[jon@gruene.social]

So I asked at Culmont Chalindrey

Station staff told me Dijon - Culmont Chalindrey ISN’T compulsory reservation

But anything along the line Belfort - Culmont Chalindrey - Troyes - Paris IS (whereas I thought it was only from Nogent sur Seine - Paris)

‍️

[bovine3dom@masto.ai]

@jon you _can_ coax this information out of SNCF Connect by clicking "Show details" and then "Pricing details [...]"

I'm always amazed that they're allowed to sell you tickets without explicitly showing you what they're actually selling you

and of course just because they're only selling specific-train tickets doesn't mean that that's the only kind of ticket accepted on that service. because as we discussed yesterday the SNCF doesn't sell all SNCF tickets in France

[thias@mastodon.social]

@jon I sometimes doubt myself. A source is always good.

[partim@social.tchncs.de]

@stefanlindbohm @jon Both ÖBB and the Interrail app show those with five digits only, too. Maybe it is a Hafas limitation (which would make sense, the old Hafas exchange format used fixed witdh fields and was a wee bit conservative).

[phrawzty@hachyderm.io]

@jon
Doing god's work out there 🫡

[jon@gruene.social]

I also asked why these trains are compulsory reservation anyway

“There’s too much demand!”

My response: “So run more trains!”

“But that’s the Région’s responsibility!”

But what if my plans change? I asked the employee

“Then you have to change your ticket in the app”

‍️

[hopla@zug.network]

@jon @stefanlindbohm
Little hint: the leading "8" in the numbering system indicates it's a TER train with passagers. The number after seems to be region-related, and the next one line+service related. I don't have the exact details but I can make guesses:

832xxx is gonna be a train in the Strasbourg area, either as Saverne-Sélestat omnibus or Strasbourg-Niederbronn mission.
Trains starting with "7" are "postal train" without passengers (hence won't show in apps). If I recall correctly, "9" is for last-minute sillon, "4" and "5" are cargo related

As for Dijon.. it's always a culture shock to me when I go there and see the station at a rush hour (~17:00-18:00) and there's barely any train entering/departing for 20 minutes, platforms empty, station shops sparsely occupied. Région BFC doesn't order trains for commuters, almost everything is Paris-Lyon oriented.

[bohwaz@mamot.fr]

@jon
This wasn't the case a few months ago. Also the discount cards on this line are a joke. If you want to go to Nancy from chalon and being low income you have to book with Bourgogne solidaire card on chalon-dijon. Then the only accepted discount card on Dijon-culmont is the regular mobigo discount card. Then culmont-nancy is the Ter fluo solidaire discount card. 3 different cards. If you don't book separately SNCF only offers you the regular price, accepting none of the discount cards.

[technicalotter@glammr.us]

@jon "Not my problem" thought in a nutshell.

[jon@gruene.social]

And as the train is (partially?) compulsory reservation, but of course they don’t show what’s reserved on signs on board… they do have a website to tell you https://www.maplaceabord.com/maplacelibre/details?service-name=839552&from-station=87142000&to-station=87113001&travel-date=2026-02-18

[timwardcam@c.im]

@jon How TF is a one-off user (eg tourist) supposed to navigate that?

[kkarhan@infosec.space]

@jon wtf!?

[jon@gruene.social]

Ah

There’s a regional train (to the right) running as an Intercités (Nancy-Lyon)

And an intercity train (to the left) running as a TER (Belfort-Paris)

The Intercités is not compulsory reservation. The TER is

[jon@gruene.social]

@TimWardCam why are tourists taking trains? They drive like any normal person.

[maartje@blahaj.social]

@jon how low effort is that site.... give me 10 minutes with that data and you get at least a visual seat map.....